Riddle's information re: magical heritage-Dumbledore's role (was Riddle's birth)

[Jen Reese]

No: HPFGUIDX 83899

--- In HPforGrownups at yahoogroups.com, "jwcpgh" <jwcpgh at y...> wrote:
> --- In HPforGrownups at yahoogroups.com, "Jen Reese" <stevejjen at e...> 
> <snip>
> He [DD]
> > doesn't want another Tom Riddle on his hands, in other words, a 
> > bitter, manipulative, revenge-seeking adolescent who makes his 
> > choices from blind rage more than anything else.
> 
> Laura:
> 
> Well, he sure succeeded, didn't he?  Harry doesn't have the 
> manipulation thing down but the rest of it sounds unpleasantly 
> familiar...


Jen: Aaackk! I didn't mean to descibe Harry, but I see the 
similarities (mostly you're joking, right? Right?!)

But here's the fundamental difference between Harry and Riddle: "I 
don't care!" Harry yelled at them [portraits}, snatching up a 
lunascope and throwing it into the fireplace. "I've had enough, I've 
seen enough, I want out, I want it to end, I don't care anymore--" 
(OOTP, US hardcover, chap. 37, p. 824) 

Yes, immense pain, bitter rage. Thoughts of revenge-seeking (think 
Snape here). But acting on these feelings? Definitely not. Which 
leads us back to the choice philosophy. Whether you believe "it is 
our choices that show who we truly are, far more than our abilites" 
(COS, US, chap. 18, p. 333) or "you fail to recognize that it 
matters not what someone is born, but what they grow to be" (GOF, 
US, chap. 36, p. 708), either one elucidates the primary difference 
between Riddle and Harry. Eerily similar beginnings; drastically 
different outcomes.